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Johnnene Maddison listens intently to a question about women's status
after the war Johnnene Maddison is an artist who is very
passionate about her subject, Women in War, and how they held the
economy, the trades and the country together during wartime.
Born in Detroit in 1943, Johnnene Maddison lived in a crowded
two-bedroom duplex with her widowed mother, grandfather, an uncle, three
aunts and a cousin. Her mother worked for Ford in the Tool & Die
division and, when Maddison's father was killed, her mother became a
single parent.
Maddison, who spoke at the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre on
Wednesday, has drawn on those childhood memories to create art that not
only pays homage to a generation who did what they had to do to survive
in wartime, but that pays homage to the memory of the women who held
things together while the men went off to war.
"I remember a time when the tea-towel was used all the time and, every
day of the week held a meaning ... Monday was wash day, Tuesday was
ironing day, etc. So what I did was create a series where every day of
the week held a depiction on a tea towel, where women were not in the
home but working in various roles outside the home." (next column)
13/01/2009 04:24 PM |
(continued)
Exquisitely quilted hangings of women who became the famous
ballplayers,The Shamrock From hand-embroidered pieces to exquisite
needlework portraits encased in antique frames, Maddison has managed to
achieve time pieces that capture wartime life for women who worked in
the factories, maintained aircraft, became the sports teams and, in
general, took over the positions once filled by the men.
"I remember when my mother worked at Ford," she said. "When the men
started coming home from the war, they started laying off the women. My
mother, who was a widow, pleaded for her job but the bosses simply told
her to go find another husband."
Maddison used oral history to gather information from women who would
agreed to share their experiences. She goes on to add that, "We are
missing the small intimate stories of these older women. Some don't
think that what they did was of any importance but it's just the
opposite and, if we don't keep a record of these stories, they will be
lost forever."
Today, Maddison is a full-time artist who lives in London, Ontario. She
has exhibited across Canada and the United States for over 30 years and
has also worked as a guest curator and art instructor for a variety of
exhibitors, galleries and stitchery guilds.
The exhibit remains at the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre through
November 30th
 
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